GOLF CLUB FITTING APPARATUS

• US 20160030803A1
• Filed: 07/31/2015
• Published: 02/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited
• Original Assignee: Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd. (Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited), Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited
• Inventors: OKAZAKI, Kousuke, KATO, Masatoshi, UEDA, Masahiko, UEDA, Naoyoshi, OYAMA, Shimpei
• Granted Patent: US 9,881,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/3605 Golf club selection aids informing player of his average or expected shot distance for each club
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/3632 Clubs or attachments on clubs, e.g. for measuring, aligning A63B69/3614 takes precedence; clubs for swinging exercises in general A63B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising

Abstract

Provided is a fitting apparatus that accurately and objectively determines an optimal swingability index, which is a swingability index of a golf club suited to a golfer. The fitting apparatus is provided with an acquisition unit, a calculation unit, and a determination unit. The acquisition unit acquires a measurement value obtained by measuring a swing action of a test club by the golfer with a measurement device. The calculation unit calculates a swing index indicating a feature amount of the swing action, based on the measurement value. The determination unit determines the optimal swingability index, according to a magnitude of the swing index.

Claims

1. A fitting apparatus configured to determine an optimal swingability index, which is a swingability index of a golf club suited to a golfer, comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire a measurement value obtained by measuring a swing action of a test club by the golfer with a measurement device;

a calculation unit configured to calculate a swing index indicating a feature amount of the swing action, based on the measurement value; and

a determination unit configured to determine the optimal swingability index, according to a magnitude of the swing index.

2. The fitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the calculation unit is configured to calculate a plurality of types of swing indices, and

the determination unit is configured to determine the optimal swingability index, according to the magnitudes of the plurality of types of the swing indices.

3. The fitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the swing index includes an index representing energy or torque that is exerted by the golfer during the swing action or an index that is correlated with the energy or torque that is exerted by the golfer during the swing action.

4. The fitting apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the swing index includes at least one of arm energy of the golfer during the swing action, torque about a shoulder of the golfer during the swing action, and head speed.

5. The fitting apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the calculation unit is configured to calculate the head speed achieved during the swing action, and

the determination unit is configured to determine the optimal swingability index, according to the magnitude of the head speed, in addition to the magnitude of at least one of the arm energy and the torque about the shoulder.

6. The fitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the determination unit is configured to determine the optimal swingability index to take a larger value as the swing index increases or decreases.

7. The fitting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit which stores correspondence data defining a correspondence between the magnitude of the swing index and the magnitude of the optimal swingability index for each type of the test club,

wherein the determination unit is configured to determine the optimal swingability index according to the type of the test club, by referring to the correspondence data in the storage unit.

8. The fitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the swingability index includes at least one of a moment of inertia of the golf club, and a moment of inertia about a shoulder of the golfer.

9. The fitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the swingability index includes a weight of the golf club.

10. The fitting apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

an optimal club specification unit configured to specify a golf club having a small swing moment of inertia and a large grip end moment of inertia from among a plurality of golf clubs that match an optimal club weight, which is a weight of the golf club suited to the golfer.

11. The fitting apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the swingability index includes at least one of a moment of inertia of the golf club, and a moment of inertia about a shoulder of the golfer.

12. The fitting apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the swingability index includes a weight of the golf club.

13. A fitting method for determining an optimal swingability index, which is a swingability index of a golf club suited to a golfer, comprising the steps of:

measuring a swing action of a test club by the golfer with a measurement device,

calculating a swing index indicating a feature amount of the swing action, based on the measurement value measured with the measurement device; and

determining the optimal swingability index, according to a magnitude of the swing index.

14. The fitting method according to claim 13,

wherein the swingability index includes at least one of a moment of inertia of the golf club, and a moment of inertia about a shoulder of the golfer.

15. The fitting method according to claim 13,

wherein the swingability index includes a weight of the golf club.

16. The fitting method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of:

specifying a golf club having a small swing moment of inertia and a large grip end moment of inertia from among a plurality of golf clubs that match an optimal club weight, which is a weight of the golf club suited to the golfer.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a fitting program for determining an optimal swingability index, which is a swingability index of a golf club suited to a golfer, the program causing a computer to execute the steps of:

acquiring a measurement value obtained by measuring a swing action of a test club by the golfer with a measurement device;

calculating a swing index indicating a feature amount of the swing action, based on the measurement value measured with the measurement device; and

determining the optimal swingability index, according to a magnitude of the swing index.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17,

wherein the swingability index includes at least one of a moment of inertia of the golf club, and a moment of inertia about a shoulder of the golfer.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17,

wherein the swingability index includes a weight of the golf club.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 19, the program causing the computer to further execute the step of:

specifying a golf club having a small swing moment of inertia and a large grip end moment of inertia from among a plurality of golf clubs that match an optimal club weight, which is a weight of the golf club suited to the golfer.